Egyptian organizes four everyday spatial relations with قدام ʾoddām “in front of,” ورا wara “behind,” فوق fōʾ “above/on top of,” and تحت taḥt “under/below.” They combine directly with nouns and with attached pronoun suffixes. They also extend beyond literal space: speaking قدام الناس “in front of people,” running ورا الأتوبيس “after the bus,” facing work فوق طاقتي “beyond my capacity,” or operating تحت ضغط “under pressure.”
English glosses are unreliable at the edges. English at the bank may mean قدام البنك if the speaker is outside, run after uses ورا, and on the table can be فوق الترابيزة when the upper surface matters. Build each expression from the scene or predicate frame.
For their use as place adverbials in the wider sentence, see Time and Place Adverbs.
The suffix paradigm
All four hosts take bound pronouns, but their linking stems differ. ورا lengthens to ورا- before a suffix: ورايا، وراه. Consonant-final تحت inserts vowels in forms such as تحته، تحتهم.
| Person | In front of | Behind | Above/on | Under |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| me | قدامي ʾoddāmi | ورايا warāya | فوقي fōʾi | تحتي taḥti |
| you (m.sg.) | قدامك ʾoddāmak | وراك warāk | فوقك fōʾak | تحتك taḥtak |
| you (f.sg.) | قدامك ʾoddāmik | وراك warāki | فوقك fōʾik | تحتك taḥtik |
| him/it | قدامه ʾoddāmu | وراه warāh | فوقه fōʾu | تحته taḥtu |
| her/it | قدامها ʾoddāmha | وراها warāha | فوقها fōʾha | تحتها taḥtaha |
| us | قدامنا ʾoddāmna | ورانا warāna | فوقنا fōʾna | تحتنا taḥtina |
| you (pl.) | قدامكم ʾoddāmkum | وراكم warākum | فوقكم fōʾkum | تحتكم taḥtukum |
| them | قدامهم ʾoddāmhum | وراهم warāhum | فوقهم fōʾhum | تحتهم taḥtuhum |
The initial ق in قدام is /ʾ/ in the mainstream Cairene baseline. /g/ or /q/ realizations occur in regional, Bedouin, Upper Egyptian, formal, and socially marked varieties (regional/social/formal); do not blend them into one unlabeled pronunciation.
خلي الشنطة قدامك عشان ماتنساهاش.
khalli sh-shanṭa ʾoddāmak ʿashān ma-tinsahāsh.
Keep the bag in front of you so you don’t forget it.
سمعت صوت ورايا، بس ماكانش فيه حد.
simiʿt ṣōt warāya, bass ma-kānsh fīh ḥadd.
I heard a sound behind me, but nobody was there.
A four-axis spatial scene
العربية قدام العمارة، والجنينة وراها، والغسيل فوق السطح، والعجل تحت السلم.
il-ʿarabiyya ʾoddām il-ʿimāra, wi-l-ginēna warāha, wi-l-ghasīl fōʾ is-saṭḥ, wi-l-ʿagal taḥt is-sullam.
The car is in front of the building, the garden is behind it, the laundry is on the roof, and the bicycles are under the stairs.
The suffix ـها in وراها refers back to feminine العمارة. فوق السطح means on the roof’s upper surface in this scene; physical contact comes from world knowledge, not from فوق alone.
اللمبة فوق الترابيزة، والكتاب فوقها.
il-lamba fōʾ it-tarābēza, wi-l-kitāb fōʾha.
The lamp is above the table, and the book is on top of it.
The same فوق allows an “above without contact” reading for the lamp and an “on top of” reading for the book. If contact alone matters, على is often the more general “on” preposition.
قدام: front, presence, and what lies ahead
Literal قدام locates something on the front side of a landmark. With people, it can mean “in someone’s presence/before an audience.”
استناني قدام البنك، مش جوه الفرع.
istannāni ʾoddām il-bank, mish guwwa l-farʿ.
Wait for me in front of the bank, not inside the branch.
ماتفتحش الموضوع ده قدام الأطفال.
ma-tiftaḥsh il-mawḍūʿ da ʾoddām il-ʾaṭfāl.
Don’t bring up this topic in front of the children.
قدامنا شغل كتير extends the spatial axis into the future: work lies ahead of us.
لسه قدامنا شغل كتير قبل التسليم.
lissa ʾoddāmna shoghl kitīr ʾabl it-taslīm.
We still have a lot of work ahead of us before delivery.
ورا: back, pursuit, and hidden cause
Literal ورا marks the rear side. With a motion predicate such as جري, it means pursuit—English after, not behind.
جريت ورا الأتوبيس بس السواق ماشافنيش.
girēt wara l-ʾotobīs bass is-sawwāʾ ma-shāfnīsh.
I ran after the bus, but the driver didn’t see me.
It also identifies a person or cause “behind” an outcome:
مين ورا القرار المفاجئ ده؟
mīn wara l-ʾarār il-mofāgiʾ da?
Who is behind this sudden decision?
These are lexical extensions. Do not replace ورا with temporal بعد merely because English after appears in “run after.”
فوق and تحت: vertical relation, limit, and control
Beyond space, فوق expresses addition or exceeding a limit, while تحت commonly introduces conditions, authority, or pressure.
المهمة دي فوق طاقتي لوحدي.
il-mohimma di fōʾ ṭāʾiti li-waḥdi.
This task is beyond what I can handle alone—literally, ‘above my capacity.’
فوق ده كله، الميزانية اتخفضت.
fōʾ da kullu, l-mīzāniyya itkhafaḍit.
On top of all that, the budget was reduced.
الفريق اشتغل تحت ضغط طول الأسبوع.
il-farīʾ ishtaghal taḥt ḍaghṭ ṭūl il-ʾusbūʿ.
The team worked under pressure all week.
التدريب تحت إشراف دكتورة متخصصة.
it-tadrīb taḥt ʾishrāf doktōra mitkhaṣṣiṣa.
The training is under the supervision of a specialist doctor.
تحت إشراف is common professional vocabulary (professional/formal); تحت ضغط spans ordinary and professional speech.
Relatives keep the spatial relation
English often uses where or strands a preposition. Egyptian normally keeps the relational host plus a suffix inside the relative clause.
دي العمارة اللي العربية واقفة قدامها.
di l-ʿimāra lli l-ʿarabiyya wāʾfa ʾoddāmha.
This is the building the car is parked in front of.
هات الكرسي اللي الشنطة تحته.
hāt il-kursi lli sh-shanṭa taḥtu.
Bring the chair that the bag is under.
The suffix agrees with the antecedent’s grammatical gender: feminine العمارة → قدامها, masculine الكرسي → تحته.
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قدام، ورا، فوق، تحت are mainstream everyday Egyptian (informal/neutral). أمام، خلف/وراء، أعلى، أسفل are common in formal writing, signs, maps, and MSA-influenced presentation language (formal), though some also occur in educated speech. A formal synonym is not automatically more precise. Regional and community varieties differ particularly in the pronunciation of ق and some suffix vowels; this page consistently models Cairene /ʾ/ in قدام.
Common Mistakes
Translating English “at” without checking the scene
❌ أنا مستني في البنك.
Incorrect if the intended location is outside in front; في means inside the bank.
✅ أنا مستني قدام البنك جنب ماكينة الفلوس.
ʾana mistanni ʾoddām il-bank gamb makīnit il-folūs.
I’m waiting in front of the bank beside the ATM.
Using temporal بعد for pursuit
❌ جريت بعد التاكسي.
Incorrect for chasing the taxi; the motion frame uses ورا.
✅ جريت ورا التاكسي لحد الإشارة.
girēt wara t-tāksi li-ḥadd il-ʾishāra.
I ran after the taxi as far as the traffic light.
Separating the suffix
❌ الكرتونة تحت هي.
Incorrect—the pronoun must attach to تحت.
✅ الكرتونة تحتها كيس أزرق.
il-kartūna taḥtaha kīs ʾazraʾ.
There is a blue bag under the box.
Stranding the relation in a relative
❌ ده المكتب اللي العربية واقفة.
Incorrect for ‘the office the car is parked in front of’; the relative lacks قدامه.
✅ ده المكتب اللي العربية واقفة قدامه من الصبح.
da l-maktab illi l-ʿarabiyya wāʾfa ʾoddāmu min iṣ-ṣobḥ.
This is the office the car has been parked in front of since morning.
Treating the formal synonym as obligatory
❌ لازم نقول أمام بدل قدام حتى في الكلام العادي.
Incorrect generalization—أمام is a real formal alternative, but everyday Cairene normally uses قدام.
✅ استناني قدام الكافيه بعد الشغل.
istannāni ʾoddām il-kāfēh baʿd ish-shoghl.
Wait for me in front of the café after work.
Key Takeaways
Use قدام/ورا for the front–back axis and فوق/تحت for the vertical axis. Their suffixes attach directly but use host-specific vowels. Learn extensions as whole frames—جري ورا، قدام الناس، فوق طاقتي، تحت ضغط—and retain a resumptive suffixed relation inside relative clauses.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- Pronoun Suffixes after PrepositionsB1 — Attach Egyptian pronoun suffixes to prepositions and choose the host-specific forms used after على، مع، في، من، and لـ.
- في — in, at, and withinA1 — Use Cairene في for location, containment, time, and lexical frames, with its complete attached-pronoun paradigm.
- على — on, over, and uponA1 — Use Cairene على for support, responsibility, schedules, and high-frequency predicate frames, with the correct suffixed stem.
- عند — at, with, and in someone’s possessionB1 — Use Egyptian عند for proximity, someone’s place or custody, possession, and personal states, with suffixes and negation.
- No English-Style Preposition StrandingB2 — Build Egyptian relatives and questions without dropping or stranding the preposition selected by the predicate.
- Basic Time and Place AdverbsA1 — Use common Egyptian time and place words in neutral, framed, and contrastive positions without copying English adverb order.